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CNN NEWSROOM

Wall Street Waits on Washington; Wildfire Roars near Yosemite; Brazil to Beef Up Security; No Remains Found in Hoffa Search; Heat Forces Game 7

Aired June 19, 2013 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: That can't go on forever. And every time the economy shows a little bit more strength, a little bit more stability, the questions arise -- will Ben Bernanke and crew slow down the trickle of money coming into the economy and what will happen.

So what they will be doing today is they'll be weighing things like things are going right in the economy Carol. Housing is recovering, the job market we're adding about 190,000 jobs a month on average this year, inflation is under control, consumer spending is rising.

But we still have high long-term unemployment. We still have slow economic growth. We still have a stock market that many people say has been push, push, push by all this money that Ben Bernanke and crew have been -- have been flooding into the market.

So they have to weigh all of these things and decide when they're going to start to taper back on that stimulus and that's why you get people so nervous. Now they're calling it the taper. The "it" word on Wall Street is the taper.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The taper. Ok.

ROMANS: What will he say about it? First you had TARP, sequester, fiscal cliff, all of those terrible words. the new one now is the "taper". And it will matter to your 401(k). It really will. If he does this right it will matter.

COSTELLO: What does it mean for investors?

ROMANS: Well they have to do it absolutely right. Right they have to do it when the economy is strong enough to handle it. They have to do it when markets are strong enough to handle it. If they don't do it properly it means interest rates will rise and could rise sharply. That would be higher mortgage rates, higher interest rates, higher credit card rates, higher car loan rates. If they don't do it just right it could really spook the stock market. You could see your 401(k) take a little hit.

So these are kinds of if the fed slows the stimulus and it's clumsy and they don't do it well, what you're seeing on your screen is what could happen. That's what is so interesting about the market right now, the stock market, Carol. Because when you see signs of economic strength, stock investors get worried. It means the fed is going to pull back on its stimulus. And so signs of economic strength are actually hurting the stock market.

Now, isn't that crazy? It sounds crazy.

COSTELLO: Oh, my gosh.

ROMANS: But it signs of weakness in the economy actually helping stock investors because they say, Ben Bernanke is going to keep flooding us with money, that's a good thing. So it's a real kind of crazy time in stocks right now but there you go. It's very important -- 2:30 this afternoon.

COSTELLO: Ok I know you'll be watching. Christine Romans, thank you.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Out west, dry weather fuelling wildfires. One is threatening a national treasure. Our Miguel Marquez will have the latest from California near Yosemite.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Investigators say a wildfire near Yosemite National Park was started by an unattended campfire and now more than 1,000 homes are under mandatory evacuation and Yosemite is in danger.

Joining me now is Miguel Marquez. Good morning, Miguel. So tell us what's going on?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there. Well it looks like they're getting the upper hand on this fire -- they are getting the upper hand on this fire. They're already starting to peel back the number of resources here. What made a critical difference are these little babies here, these -- the Caterpillars and the bulldozers cut big lines in this fire, but this summer with the heat and the lack of humidity we have, it's going to be a long, hot summer of fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ (voice over): Fires this big, this early, not supposed to happen.

Oh, my God. Wow.

Here in the foothills of Yosemite National Park, more than a thousand families evacuated. 2,200 fire fighters working round the clock to protect homes and the national treasure. Tinder, dry conditions feeding the wind-fuelled fires just about everywhere. Near Prescott, Arizona, fires spread rapidly creating panic and more evacuations.

Across the west, historic levels of severe and extreme dryness, even large chunks of exceptional dryness, that's more extreme than extreme.

GARY WUCHNER, FIRE BEHAVIOR ANALYST: This is kind of unprecedented seeing this kind of dryness this early with a longer summer coming. Again this is June.

MARQUEZ: Yes.

WUCHNER: We're seeing things that you see in August.

MARQUEZ: So many fires already in California, smoke drifting east into Clark County in Las Vegas, prompting air hazard alerts.

PAUL "BEAR" VASQUEZ, DOUBLE RAINBOW MAN: At one point it looked like a volcano, and I was like whoa.

MARQUEZ: Paul Vazquez and his personal fire command center. You might know him better as "Bear." This fire burned the mountain that made him famous.

VASQUEZ: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

MARQUEZ: He too lives at Yosemite's doorstep, ordered to evacuate, he says he's going nowhere.

(on camera): This place is in your soul, isn't it?

VASQUEZ: Yes. That's true. I feel like I'm the protector of this land.

MARQUEZ: Yes.

VASQUEZ: And it's -- it's a very powerful place and now it's very famous.

MARQUEZ: Here in Free Spirit, California already a season of fire and the official fire season hasn't even begun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: I still can't believe that I actually met "Bear". On this fire a couple of data points for you. Yosemite National Park, it is ok. They might have some smoke in there today, but this fire is not going to get anywhere near it. They say they've got it under control. It's about 40 percent contained now and they're already starting to allow some folks back into their houses.

So it looks like they hit this one very, very hard, very, very quickly, and they were able to get it under control.

COSTELLO: Oh I'm so glad. It is weird you ran into double rainbow man "Bear". That's cool.

MARQUEZ: It was just -- he's more bizarre than he is in that video, if you can believe it.

COSTELLO: Well, yes, I can. Miguel Marquez, thanks so much.

It began as a protest over the rising price of a bus ticket, and it's erupted into this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: Brazil is beefing up security with specialized police and fire fighters following ten days of protests in cities across the country. Today protest organizers are calling for a time-out, but this morning, protesters lit a fire line across a highway. Organizers found (ph) protesters will hit the streets again tomorrow in full force.

CNN's Shasta Darlington is live in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Good morning Shasta.

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This has just been an incredible 10, 11 days as you said. We've seen something that really started as a student protest against this hike in bus fares, snowball into something much bigger. And we're seeing tens of thousands of Brazilians taking to the streets and really vent their frustration against government corruption, against high taxes.

And against these big, luxurious sporting events, when they say their money should be spent on things like health and education. We saw last night another -- another demonstration starting out very peacefully, tens of thousands in the streets of Sao Paulo, but then it did turn ugly and this is where things get difficult. We saw protesters trying to storm the mayor's offices, they lit a car on fire and this could begin to turn off some of the middle class that's started to galvanize behind this protest.

However this morning, the mayor of Sao Paulo said he will consider revoking that bus fare, which was what set this whole thing off. So it will be an interesting time to see if this gathers momentum or if they finally reach a solution -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Shasta Darlington, reporting live for us this morning, thank you.

Still ahead in the NEWSROOM, Ray Allen sticks a dagger into the heart of the Spurs and the Heat twists it in overtime.

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COSTELLO: All right. This breaking news is about the body of Jimmy Hoffa. Guess what happened in Michigan? I'll give you a second. Just guess. Come on, just guess. I'll tell you, no remains found. Nothing found in this field and the FBI has been digging into this field for the past two and a half days.

This morning they're holding a press conference to tell reporters that no remains have been found. This has been a promising lead or it was a promising lead for the FBI. A former mafia guy, former mobster, told the FBI, told investigators that friends of his told him while -- after he got out of jail, that they had killed Jimmy Hoffa with a shovel and then buried him alive, put a concrete block on top of him and then piled dirt on top.

You can see the areas where they've been digging. Buildings used to stand in those spots and they thought maybe Jimmy Hoffa was underneath that. But apparently no remains have been found. Poppy Harlow, you were in that press conference that took place moments ago. What did investigators say?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, another search for Jimmy Hoffa. This search that has confounded the FBI for nearly four decades is over. FBI special agent in charge Robert Foley just coming out, speaking to the media, saying, quote, of course we are disappointed but saying after two plus days of diligent searches, on about one acre of land, an hour outside of metro Detroit, they have found nothing that points them to the body of Jimmy Hoffa.

They used cadaver dogs, they used big bulldozers. They found nothing. Also, some other officials that spoke with him spoke about all the criticism the FBI has received about the costs of searching, time and time again. I know you've covered this in the past, Carol, searching for Jimmy Hoffa, saying those comments should be dispelled, saying they always consider the cost-benefit analysis of these searches.

Remember, Carol, the FBI called this tip highly credible. Law enforcement source said this is highly credible. The tip, why they dug here starting Monday, came from 85-year-old Tony Zerilli. He's an alleged former underboss here in Detroit. He called himself a close friend of Jimmy Hoffa.

He apparently went to the authorities within the last year with information saying that Hoffa was driven from a restaurant outside of Detroit, here on July 30th, 1975, to this field, then struck over the head with a shovel and buried alive, cement placed over his body. That is Zerilli's story. But the FBI found nothing of the sort here, Carol.

COSTELLO: Ok. So I know they found nothing, but is it possible, since it's been such a long time, that Hoffa's body was possibly here and they just can't find it?

HARLOW: They don't believe that. They really -- you know, that was just asked in the press conference and they said "We have no reason to believe that his remains are here." You know, my colleague Susan Candiotti who's on the ground here with me covering it, talked to an expert yesterday about (inaudible) after this many years, almost 40 years later, what would remain and they said you would likely still have some bones. The body would likely not be fully disintegrated.

So that points it to the fact that the amount of searching they did digging and digging in this area, caused them to call this off. They could have gone all week but they chose to stop now. I will tell you, Carol, the warrant, the affidavit, the warrant for them to do this search was approved by a judge is sealed and it's not cleared if that will ever be unsealed unless there is an indictment.

So we may not know the particulars of what told them that this was credible enough to go on this tip, to come here and dig. We may never know that and they can't discuss what is in that sealed warrant.

COSTELLO: All right. Poppy Harlow reporting live from Michigan this morning. So where is Jimmy Hoffa? It remains an enduring American mystery. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: 52 minutes past the hour, time to check our top stories.

Tributes pouring in across social media for journalist Michael Hastings -- Hastings died in a car accident in Los Angeles. He was perhaps best known for a 2010 "Rolling Stone" profile on General Stanley McChrystal that eventually led to McChrystal's resignation. Hastings had been working for Buzzfeed since last year when he was hired to cover President Obama's re-election campaign.

Italy's highest court had already said a jury mistakenly acquitted Amanda Knox for the murder of her roommate in 2007 and now we're finding out why. In a written filing the court says some evidence was ignored. The court has ordered a new trial but no word if Knox will have to return to Italy.

Quite the natural fireworks show just southeast of Mexico City, this active volcano erupted, blasting ash and burning fragments nearly two and a half miles into the sky. Mexican officials placed the area on alert and have restricted travel to the volcano's crater until local access roads.

SportsIllustrated.com reports that New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez has been questioned about a murder. A body was found about a mile from his Massachusetts home. Now, police don't consider Hernandez a suspect, but a vehicle rented in Hernandez's name is believed to be a key piece of evidence in that homicide investigation.

It's the two most exciting words in sports, Game 7 -- that's what we'll have in Miami tomorrow night. The Heat forced the ultimate match with a thrilling come-from-behind win over the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA finals last night.

CNN's Rachel Nichols witnessed it all in Miami. Wow, what a game.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it really was terrific, Carol. You know, Lebron James even said it was the best game, by far, that he had ever been a part of. Really, this is how dire things were for the Heat, with less than 30 seconds to go, the Spurs were up by five points. Fans started streaming to the exits, I don't know, trying to beat the traffic, they figured the game was over, and security officials surrounded the court with yellow tape and that's so that they could present the championship trophy to the Spurs and keep fans from rushing the court.

Well, guess what? Lebron James and Dwyane Wade said that they and their teammates saw that tape and they said you guys are planning our demise. It is not over yet and sure enough, it was not. Ray Allen sank that beautiful three-pointer. The Heat went on to win in overtime.

Carol, by the way, I want to point out these doors behind me, because all the fans who left early, at least a bunch of them, must have heard on the radio that the game went into overtime, they rushed back on to this plaza, started banging on the doors trying to get back in -- mostly not successful. But, hey, the Heat won.

COSTELLO: See you should be a true fan and stay to the bitter end -- exactly.

So tell us about Game 7. What are the questions for that game?

NICHOLS: Yes. You know, obviously people want to know, are the Spurs going to be able to rebound. Are the Heat going to be able to keep this momentum up? Really, the question on the Internet is, will Lebron wear a headband and the back story behind this is that Lebron James always, always, always when he's on the court wears a headband.

Some of our male viewers might be able to relate. It's a little early, male pattern baldness. Likes the headband, not only keeps the sweat off his face but covers that area up a little bit. He had his headband knocked off midway through the fourth quarter last night, did not put it back on, shocked his teammates. Dwyane Wade who's known him for ever said I've never seen him play that much of a game without his headband on.

He went into what can only be referred to in sports as beast mode after that headband got knocked off. Played a fantastic game from there on out. Everyone even inside the Heat locker room wants to know -- headband, no headband for game 7. We'll find out.

COSTELLO: Lebron once scored 30 plus points, right?

NICHOLS: Absolutely. So you got to think, maybe no headband. But he was asked about it after the game and he kind of brushed it off. We'll find out. His teammates did not brush this off at all. They thought it was a big deal.

COSTELLO: I love when you said, should we say male pattern baldness? I'm sure Lebron appreciated that.

NICHOLS: I want to be nice.

COSTELLO: I know.

NICHOLS: I would like to be kind because who can say, tell, whatever. But it's good. It's a definite one more point of interest in an already fascinating series -- and a little fun. You've got to have a little fun with this -- it's sports.

COSTELLO: Exactly. And Lebron is a big man.

Rachel Nichols, thanks so much.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "CNN NEWSROOM" continues after a break.

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ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield, nice to have you with us. It's a very busy day -- a big, big show ahead -- all the day's news plus, as always our take on daytime justice. Let's begin here.

Back in Berlin, Barack Obama --